Thursday, October 28, 2010

Tsunami Family Saved by Schoolgirl's Geography Lesson

Tilly Smith is now back safely at Danes Hill School in Oxshott, Surrey, England. Last week she told her geography class how the sea slowly rose and started to foam, bubble, and form whirlpools before the big waves came.

"What Tilly described as happening was exactly the same as I'd shown on a video of a tsunami that hit the Hawaiian islands [in 1946]," said Andrew F. Kearney, Tilly's geography teacher. "She saw the consequences of not acting when something strange happens."

"The teacher has a computer on the desk and can project different Web pages onto the whiteboard," Kearney said. "It's helped make great strides in teaching geographyit really brings it into the classroom."

Children are also given practical tasks. One of these was to build models of an earthquake-proof house out of balsa wood. "I put [the models] on a box and shake it to see which model remains intact the longest," Kearney added.

He's had many hundreds of supportive e-mails from teachers around the world since Tilly's story was first reported in Britain.

"People often underrate teaching and teachers and they feel it's important to show we can make a difference," Kearney said.

"Any subject can be dull if it's taught that way," he continued. "You've got to get the children involved and interestedthat's the challenge. If they're just given a dusty old book and asked to answer some questions, then they're not going to learn much."

While geography remains a popular subject with pupils at Danes Hill, it's a different picture nationally, according to David Bell, chief inspector of schools in England.

Last November he stated that geography is on the decline in primary and secondary schools, adding that the subject has become neglected and marginalized.

Worst Taught Subject

Inspectors found that geography is the worst taught subject in primary schools.

Bell said educators need to engage pupils more purposefully by making them realize the relevance and value of the subject and, most important, by ensuring they enjoy it.

"Water shortages, famine, migrations of people, disputes over oil, globalization, and debt are all major issues with which our world is grappling, and this is the geography of today," he added.

David Lambert, chief executive of the Geographical Association in Sheffield, England, agreed with Bell.

Lambert said, "Geography concerns real-world learning. There is nothing more mind-expanding, more fulfilling physically, emotionally, and intellectually than making sense of the world firsthand."

He suggests the problem in schools is linked to difficulties teachers have in integrating the subject into the weekly curriculum.

"Being about the contemporary world, and the world in the outdoor classroom, designing geography can seem a little more daunting, particularly to those without any training or inspiration to do so," he added.

And it's a challenge teachers appear to be struggling with in many countries.

In 2002 the National Geographic Society commissioned a survey to test the geographic knowledge of 18- to 24-year-olds in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Britain, and the U.S.

It found, for instance, that only 31 percent of young U.S. adults could correctly identify Britain on a world map. And, on average, fewer than 25 percent of young people worldwide could locate Israel.

The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster has sparked calls for levels of geographic knowledge to be improved in affected regions. In countries such as Thailand and Indonesia, very few people understood the risks posed by the undersea earthquake, or were able to read warning signs in the sea.

Thanks to Andrew Kearney, Tilly Smith had been forewarned. She remembered the lesson and survived to tell her classmates her terrifying tale.